


Hygiene, Health, Sleep

by xmzame



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Caring, Cas and Dean are roommates, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Exam Stress, Fluff, Food, Friends to Lovers, It's less sexual than the summary sounds I swear, M/M, Sassy Castiel, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6382516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xmzame/pseuds/xmzame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas gets stressed when exams are near, so Dean does what he can to help his roommate out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hygiene, Health, Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the SPN Writing Challenge for March, hope you like it!

When Dean got back to the apartment after a whole day out with Sam and his mom, he found his roommate lying on the top bunk with his nose in a book, literally, sat on his face. Cas didn’t jump or startle when Dean came in. He lowered his textbook and acknowledged Dean’s presence with a quick glance and an exasperated sigh.

“Gee. Nice to see you too, Cas,” Dean said, resting his keys and bags on the kitchen counter.

Cas sat up slightly and rubbed a hand over his face, revealing a large bedhead. “I’m sorry.”

Dean looked at him curiously, noticing how worn out Cas looked when it was barely 7 o’clock. “What’d you do, study all day?”

“If studying means staring at the same two pages without taking in any information, then yes,” Cas uttered, glaring at his open textbook. “What time is it?”

“Uh, almost seven. You ate yet?” Dean asked.

Cas’ eyes lifted up in surprise. “Um, I had one of the leftover burgers for lunch. And I…” He looked down at what he was wearing, to what Dean realized was the pajamas he had on from this morning. 

Cas sighed and leaned back, taking the book back into his hands.

“Hey. C’mon, you gotta take a break from that,” Dean said, pacing towards the bunk bed.

Cas shook his head, returning his focus back to the same page. “My test is on Wednesday,” he argued with, as if that was convincing enough to let the conversation slide.

“I know,” Dean asserted, putting his hands over the top bed frame. “And I know how stressed you get when exams are close. But you know what’s more important than exams?”

Cas glared down at him, knowing what Dean was gonna say. “I absolutely have no idea,” he sarcastically replied with.

“Hygiene, Cas. Health. _Sleep_ ,” Dean listed. Cas was close to rolling his eyes and calling Dean a hypocrite, Dean could sense it. “Alright, let’s get you up.”

“Dean—”

“ _Cas_ , you look like hell. You’re gonna take a shower, okay? I’ll make us some dinner and I don’t know, _strawberry tea_ , since you like that a lot,” Dean suggested.

Cas glanced away for a few seconds and eventually nodded, putting the book away as he went down the ladder and jumped to the floor halfway. “Thank you. Though I’m not sure what could possibly be dinner with what we have in the fridge.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. I brought back loads of quality food,” Dean stated, gesturing to the bags he brought in with him.

Cas looked at the amount of bags then back at Dean, slowly showing him the softest smile he’d ever put on. “What good have I done to deserve you as a roommate?”

Dean almost fell silent and shrugged, trying to keep his cool. “Way too much, apparently.” Cas was looking at him soulfully with a half-open mouth, as if figuring out what to say. He looked far too cute doing that, Dean thought, and Cas simply nodded once before heading to the bathroom.

It was kind of just like that between Dean and Cas recently. The staring, the caring, the whole _shit-how-the-hell-do-I-react-to-that-compliment_ thing. Dean liked where they were, though he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to go further. He was just grateful for the way their relationship went from showing nothing but spite towards one another on the first day to… _something._

Fifteen minutes later, dinner was set and Cas was still in the bathroom. The narrow kitchen counter they called their dining table served two bowls of chicken ramen, a colourful fruit salad, bottled water, and a warm mug of strawberry tea. Dean was still playing with the teabag, dipping it in and out. He looked up at the sound of the bathroom door opening and the fruity scent that followed Cas as he walked out with a new set of pajamas on.

“Man, you and your shampoos. What is that, cherry?” Dean asked, scrunching up his nose.

Cas rolled his eyes and continued towel drying his hair. “Watermelon. At least the scent rubs off the constant stink of sex around here.”

“You had- you had sex recently?” Dean asked, bewildered by the fact.

“No, I was making a joke about you,” Cas simply stated.

“Oh. _Wait_ , hey! I haven’t had sex in more than a _month_ ,” Dean admitted. He bit his tongue immediately after. _That definitely didn’t sound like I was suggesting something._

Cas nearly paused in his drying and chose to ignore the comment, and Dean was more than thankful for that. He spotted the full dinner table and straightened up, dumping his towel on the rack.

“Ramen’s okay, right?” Dean asked as Cas walked to the counter.

Cas moved his eyes from the ramen, to the fruit salad, to the strawberry tea with a tiny smile curling at the corner of his mouth. He sighed.

“Is- ramen not okay?” Dean asked.

“Ramen is _perfect_ , Dean.” Cas grabbed a chair and dug into his bowl quick. He sighed contently after the first slurp of noodle soup.

Dean smiled, pulling a chair himself as he sat on the opposite side of the counter. “Should I leave you and the processed meal alone?”

“Sorry. I’ve been craving chicken ramen for far too long,” Cas said, putting down his chopsticks as he reached for a bottled water. “How was your day out?”

“Good. I got to catch up with Sam a lot, and my mom, so yeah. Good,” Dean told, taking a bite into his fried egg on top. “And she practically shoved a whole bag of fruits into my hands before I left. Hence the fruit salad over here.”

Cas pored his eyes over at the bowl. “I never thought I’d see the day Dean Winchester makes a fruit salad.”

“Shut up, I can be healthy too,” Dean mumbled. “And uh, you? Are you doing okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Dean looked up at him as he took another spoon. Cas held a blank expression, avoiding his gaze and concentrated on the ramen noodles instead. “I mean, you were kind of in bed all day, so…” Dean pointed out, keeping his eyes on him.

Cas shrugged. “It’s been a stressful week. The more I study, the more I question my choice of major. So the more I stay in bed.”

“Well, that’s kinda normal right? The major thing, I mean.”

“I suppose. I still wish to be a writer, so I doubt anything’s changing,” Cas mentioned. He hummed as he dug continuously into his ramen, still savouring the taste of each bite. Dean couldn’t believe he could still look cute like that.

They ate in silence for a few good moments. Dean watched as Cas took a long sip of his tea and stayed quiet, shutting his eyes in peace. _God, he looked like any other tea-loving hipster._ Dean snorted at the scene, disturbing that moment of peace as Cas lifted his eyelids at him.

“What?” Cas asked. He didn’t use the same angry, menacing tone he spoke with during the first week of meeting Dean. It was calm and curious, and he was even smiling a little bit.

Dean shook his head, trying to hide his own smile quickly. “Nothing.”

“Liar,” Cas muttered, but he didn’t question further and went back to his food.

The last bit of ramen was finished within several minutes. Dean caught Cas’ eye when they were done eating, and Cas glanced back at the lonely fork sat in the fruit salad.

“That’s for you. You need your vitamins,” Dean said, grabbing a bottled water for himself.

Cas looked down at the fruit bowl and back up at Dean. “So do you. Share this with me.”

“Uh… that’s okay, I’m-”

“Dean. Share this with me,” Cas repeated. He kept his gaze on Dean, making it certain that he wasn’t letting it go. His eyes were somewhat pleading, and saying no to that face would equal to rejecting a puppy’s love and watching it sulk.

Dean glanced at the fruit salad, knowing it was missing something. “Fine. But only if…” He held a finger up and reached for the fridge behind him with another hand. “We finally make good use of this baby!”

“Dean, that thing has been in your _mouth_ ,” Cas complained as soon as he saw the can Dean was holding.

“Relax, it’s not like I actually touched it,” Dean assured, shaking the can of whipped cream. “At least I think so,” he added. Cas grunted softly and shook his head. “Something wrong with my mouth, Castiel?” Dean joked, and he knew he needed to shut up right away, but the flirty smirk didn’t leave his face for a good while.

“Shut up,” Cas said back, darting his eyes away.

Dean grinned. He sprayed whipped cream in a thick swirly pattern above the fruits and placed one of the blueberries on top, making it look pretty. He heard Cas snicker quietly while he pulled out a fork from the cabinet next to him. Dean put a creamed kiwi in his mouth and hummed contently at the taste.

Cas was simply forking through the fruits, not taking a single one. Dean was about to call him picky for it, until Cas picked up a creamy apricot from the bowl and held it up for Dean to see.

“Thanks, but I’d rather feed myself?” Dean teased.

“No- I thought you disliked apricots. A lot,” Cas said.

“So?”

Cas ate the piece and chewed it with a tiny smile growing on his lips. “So… does your mother not know you dislike them?”

Dean put his fork down and shook his head. “What is it that you want me to admit, man?”

“Well-”                                                                                      

“Don’t answer that. Yeah, I bought those for you,” Dean admitted, and he didn’t have to tell Cas to shut his cakehole about it, because Cas was busy smiling to himself and enjoying his stupid apricots. And damn, Dean wished it wasn’t that cute.

“Thank you,” Cas murmured sometime after. Dean replied to him with a smile he didn’t see.

 

++

 

“Shit.”

Dean switched his focus from the book he was reading to Cas, who was back to studying. Cas was sat at the study table and had everything laid out in front of him, including… several pages he just spilled tea on.

“It’ll dry,” Dean mumbled.

Cas sighed, leaning back against the chair. “I’m losing a lot of focus today.”

“Maybe ‘cause you keep studying the same stressful way,” Dean pointed out. “You’re just reading and writing and reading and writing.”

“It’s how I study and it helps most of the time,” Cas replied, still facing his back to him.

“Yeah, _most_ of the time.” Dean bookmarked the page he was reading and closed his book. “Are you really that intent on getting some work done?”

Cas swivelled around in his chair and looked at Dean in an almost glaring manner, not saying anything. Dean shrugged, raising his hands. “I’m just saying, you’ve been wearing yourself out these past few days. It wouldn’t hurt to take one day off,” He added.

Cas pondered on it for a while, pressing the end of a pen into his temple.

“I honestly don’t think I’m gonna get any work done,” he finally said. Before Dean could respond, Cas got up from his chair with his mug in hand and headed to the kitchenette.

“Are you gonna make more tea?” Dean asked.

“Don’t mock me for it,” Cas said back.

“I’m not, just— could you make some for me too?”

Cas turned to him and furrowed his eyebrows. “Are you genuinely asking me that?”

Dean smiled. “Yeah, I could do with some tea right now.”

Cas was still confused, but he shrugged and got out an extra mug for him. “Sugar?”

“Nah.”

Dean sat up as Cas approached him a minute later with two mugs of hot tea. He muttered a small thanks and got a thin smile in return. Cas went back to his desk, only to shut all the open books and put away his stationery neatly. He sat comfortably and took a sip of his tea, eyeing the apartment with a pensive stare.

“Despite how small this apartment is, it certainly is more aesthetically pleasing than most,” Cas stated.

Dean looked around the room himself, and Cas was right. The tiny studio only had a kitchenette, a long ass study table, a bunk bed, and a bathroom, but it didn’t stop the colours from matching well. The furniture was in good quality too, and it almost made Dean not care at all about the size of the room.

“Yeah. Anything’s better than those old mouldy dorms,” Dean said. “God, I hated sharing stuff with the whole floor. My roommate was a total dick.”

“Was he more of a dick than I was?” Cas asked, lifting his eyes from the rim of his mug.

“Nah. Nobody beats you,” Dean joked. He must’ve said it a little seriously, because a look of shock and hurt flashed across Cas’ face. Dean quickly waved a hand and laughed. “I’m kidding! C’mon, you’re… you’re pretty cool.”

A soft smile landed on Cas’ lips as he shrugged. “So are you.”

With three words, a cat certainly got Dean’s tongue right then. His mouth was half-open for a good few seconds before he remembered to breathe. He took a long first sip of his tea and swallowed, only to almost choke on the bitter taste. He really wasn’t used to tea.

“You should’ve asked for sugar,” Cas said.

Dean smirked, immediately thinking of a line. “Don’t need sugar when I’ve got you.”

Cas bit back a smile and blushed, shaking his head. “Horrible.”

Dean never had a problem with making a move on someone if he was interested, yet for a whole two weeks, he’d done nothing but shoot a bad pick up line and laugh it off as a joke later. It was possibly because Cas was his _roommate_ , and if anything awkward or bad happened between them, college would just be an awful, awful experience.

Dean decided to look casual by checking his phone, scrolling through nothing, and then headed to the kitchenette to actually put sugar in his tea.

“Dean?”

“Yeah?” Dean turned around while circling the spoon in his mug.

Cas stayed quiet for a good two seconds before he blurted his sentence out. “Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“Don’t think so. Why?” Dean asked. _There’s no way he’s actually…_

Cas shrugged, playing with his fingers. “I um— I guess I just need somebody to study with, or help me with it, I suppose. But it’s alright if you-”

“Okay,” Dean said. He made it casual, thankfully, and turned to wash the spoon in the sink.

“You… don’t mind?” He heard Cas ask.

“Why would I mind? Dude, I bought _apricots_ for you. I’m pretty sure I can sit with you and flash cards, or something.”

Cas smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

 

  ** _-FOUR DAYS LATER-_**

 

Cas wasn’t back at the apartment and it was already unusually late for him. He’d normally leave campus the minute classes were done with and got back before Dean did, yet Dean had been back for an hour and there wasn’t a trace of Cas around.

_Shut up, Dean, he didn’t get kidnapped._

About twenty minutes later of Dean trying not to overthink things, Cas walked through the door.

“Hey, where the hell have you been?” Dean asked, eyeing the handful of plastic bags carried in by Cas.

“I… went to the supermarket.”

“The- _what_?” Dean was pretty sure Cas said _supermarket_ , but he was also sure that there wasn’t a supermarket around for another ten miles away from here. Cas didn’t even own a car.

Cas put the bags on the counter and stripped off his trench coat, leaving it on a chair. “I took a cab to the supermarket. Somewhere closer, at least.” Dean was going to question him some more, but Cas started digging through one of the bags and brought out the contents one by one. He got to one of them that grabbed Dean’s attention— _pie._

“I aced my test, apparently. So I wanted to thank you for helping me,” Cas said, holding out a packaged pie.

Dean stared at it for a good few seconds and tried to contain himself. He walked towards the counter to see what else Cas bought. _Toilet paper, beef jerky, gummy bears, cereal, pasta…_

“Dude, are you not aware that there are tons of convenience stores around here?” Dean asked.

“I am aware,” Cas said back, holding up the pie higher. “But the pies in those stores are filled with chemicals and simply taste unnatural. The supermarket I went to has a bakery that actually uses enough wheat.”

Dean honestly didn’t care where the pies came from, but he gently took the pie from Cas’ hands to see the label on the packaging, and noticed how good the _apple_ pie actually looked. Cas was waiting for a response, and Dean was just standing there, registering the fact that Cas went all the way to the supermarket to get him some quality pie.

“Um, there wasn’t any pecan or cherry… but I figured you liked apple just as much,” Cas stated awkwardly. “You don’t hate apple pie, do you?”

Dean put the pie down and sighed, beaming widely at him. “I swear, I could kiss you right now.”

Cas straightened up attentively, and it made Dean want to take back what he just said because Cas was looking at him with actual _surprise_.

Dean’s smile fell as he stuttered, “I mean- I didn’t, it’s just the uh-” He felt his throat close up and tried to huff a laugh that came out as a small whimper. “Apple pie’s great!”

Cas stared at him in slight confusion and lifted a corner of his mouth. “Dean, relax,” he muttered. “That’s how I react to almost everything you say to me.”

Dean registered that sentence and took a breath. “So, I’m not making things up in my head?”

Cas’ eyes softened and flickered to Dean’s lips as he shook his head. Dean watched as Cas leaned into his space and brushed their lips. Dean closed the distance and captured Cas’ bottom lip, pulling him in by the arm. Cas’ lips were warm but rough on the outside, just as Dean imagined them to be, and _shit,_ he was already good at this.  

Their first kiss ended too short with Cas pulling away, giving Dean a questioning look. “Would this- would this complicate us being roommates?”

“We’ll figure things out,” Dean said. “C’mon, don’t interrupt.”

Cas smiled at him and held him closer, placing his hand around Dean’s waist. “You’re better at this than I thought,” he said, leaning in to kiss him again.

Dean darted his head back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Cas only answered him with a cheeky smile and shook his head. Dean rolled his eyes and landed his mouth on Cas’, moving his hands up to rest on Cas’ jaw. He felt Cas tense up and slowly pulled away, looking at him to make sure he was okay.

“What’s wrong?”

Cas’ shoulders were uncomfortably lifted. “Uh- nothing.” He smiled to brush it off, but his body was still slightly stiff and unrelaxed.

“Hey, what is it?” Dean asked, putting a hand down to massage his shoulder.

Cas sighed. “I’m- I have a ticklish neck. So…” Both he and Dean looked at the hand that was still on his neck.

Dean lifted his hand immediately and snickered. “Really? Sorry.”

Cas nodded and smiled guiltily as he held Dean tighter. “You’re the first person to not tickle me on purpose after knowing about it.”

“Wait, does this mean I can’t give you hickeys?” Dean teased.

Cas raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you never left a hickey anywhere else?”

Dean beamed and moved his hands to clasp behind Cas, resting his arms on his shoulders. “Shut up.”

 

++

 

“Cas, it’s getting late—”

Cas interrupted him with a grunt and hugged him tighter. “Five minutes won’t hurt.”

“Fine. But after that you’re going back up,” Dean said, swiping a thumb over Cas’ arm. “God, I hate this tiny ass bed.”

Cas laughed against his chest and rolled halfway on top of Dean, pecking the apple of Dean’s cheek. He pressed another kiss to Dean’s cheekbone and moved down to his jaw, cupping the other side of Dean’s face.

Dean would lie if he said he didn’t love it; being this close to Cas, getting kisses from him, and very recently, getting a _blow_ from him. He put a hand in Cas’ hair and ran it through, noticing again how soft it was. Dean’s other hand was under Cas’ shirt, just slightly under, squeezing a tiny pudge of Cas’ back. His eyelids felt heavy and started to droop, and Cas was still slowly worshipping Dean’s face.

“Mm, Cas… I need to sleep,” he said tiredly.

Cas paused and shifted away while keeping close to him. “Then sleep.”

Dean smiled, kissing Cas’ forehead. “I don’t wanna suffocate or- _fall_ to my death,” he uttered, darting his eyes to the floor. “Seriously, this bed is tiny enough for one of us.”

Cas sighed and sat up while Dean gave him space to move. Dean sat up too, not wanting much distance between them just yet. He gently grabbed Cas by the arm to make him turn, and Cas gave in. Cas loomed over him slightly and kissed Dean long enough before pulling away.

“I’m not turning off the lights,” Cas whispered, and left Dean’s bed to climb up to his.

“Hey!” Dean called out, making Cas laugh in response. “Man, you’re a shit sometimes, you know that?”

“Good night, Dean.”

“I hope your apple pie’s freakin’ worth it.”


End file.
